Trekking
by Whip-Owl
Summary: Trekking across the country of Amestris wasn't fun in most conditions, the fact that it was a princess and what remained of a homunculus traveling together didn't help with that.
1. Chapter 1

(Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. Not going to lie, it's nice to write something that isn't Ling or Greed for a change.)

Envy was angry, or at least they were. The humans had destroyed their Philosopher's stone, then dared to look down on them and were planning to use them for the princess' sake. They didn't remember her name, honestly. And why should they? They were a homunculus, not some object for another country's political game, an object that would probably be dissected to find anything valuable. No point commenting on that, it wouldn't help Envy get out of the situation. The point was, this was humiliating, and they were going to be angry about it.

But that feeling didn't stay. As it turned out, sitting in a little jar, with a view obscured by a sheet for hours was really boring. At least, they were pretty sure it had been hours. The princess was silent, just running on and on, and it wouldn't make a difference if Envy could see more, because all they were passing were trees. It was so dull.

"Hey!" Envy called out, lifting their head. "Hey you! We're going to you country right?"

"That's the idea," the princess answered, like Envy was slow.

They weren't. They were just starting the conversation. There was a definite difference.

"And how long'll that take?" Envy asked.

"Well . . . it's a two day trip across the desert." That didn't sound completely honest. "But we have to get there first, and that's about. . ."

The princess was clearly thinking about it, but Envy didn't need to anymore. Getting from Briggs to the Eastern border of the country was not a day trip, especially not on foot.

Envy groaned and dropped back against the bottom of the jar. "We're never getting out of here."

Not that they had complaints about that. They didn't want to leave the country, but it sounded better than traveling across it in a jar.

"Don't worry, I've got an idea," the princess said.

"That's the perfect reason to worry," Envy replied.

The princess made a frustrated noise and her grip on the jar tightened, but nothing else happened.

"Fine. What's the plan?" Envy asked.

The princess reached a clearing and flung her arm out.

"Ta-da!"

They were in front of a small building, with train tracks on the other side of it. A train station.

"Ah."


	2. Chapter 2

Mei was glad she'd thought of the train. This would take long enough without having to walk all the way. She hadn't completely lied to Envy. Crossing the desert could take two days, but that was best case scenario. Being alone, or with a homunculus in a jar, it was probably going to take longer.

For a while the train ride passed uneventfully. Mei sat and watched the view outside the window. Envy was mercifully quiet. She'd even gotten something to eat, and very messy sandwich. She didn't get to finish it. On the opposite end of the train car two people from the military entered.

"Excuse me?" one of them asked a passenger on the other end. "We're looking for a Xingese girl. I don't suppose you've seen her?"

He began to give a description that was obviously Mei. She gulped. They were looking for her. Why? Okay, that one she could guess. How had they found her so easily? Yeah, that question was more pressing.

Inside the jar Envy lifted their head. "Hey! Hey you guys! The girl's over here!"

"What are you doing?" Mei asked as one of the soldiers turned towards the voice. "Do you want to walk the whole way there?"

The one soldier poked the other in the shoulder and pointed towards Mei.

"No I want you to get caught," Envy said.

And okay, that was fair enough.

The soldier came towards her.

"You're going to have to accompany us back to Central," one of them said.

The other one was reaching for his gun.

"I don't think so," Mei said.

She flung one of her kunai into the soldier's wrist and he dropped the gun. The other one reached for his, but Mei used the time to get away. She leapt out of the seat and flung more kunai into the wall, forming a circle. She grabbed the one out of the man's wrist as she passed. She couldn't use dirt to make a circle though, they were on a train. She looked at her sandwich, the one with far too many condiments on it. Then she smashed it into the ground and smeared it across the floor, making a circle.

"This is dumb," Envy commented.

For once, Mei was inclined to agree, but desperate times and all that.

Using alkahestry she burst a hole in wall.

"I'm sorry about that!" Mei shouted.

Not sorry enough to fix the wall, no doubt getting caught as both soldiers were still interested in her. Mei jumped out of the train, which luckily seemed to be slowing down. Mei hit the ground with a cry, and she let go of Envy's jar. They began to roll away, shouting some very colorful things after Mei. She sighed. It looked like she'd have to go after them.


	3. Chapter 3

Mei ran through the forest in relative peace. She should've known it wouldn't last.

"Hey princess," Envy leered. "Let me out."

Well that was the most upfront about the request Envy had ever been.

"I'm not letting you out," Mei said.

"No really. I have to pee."

Oh. "Ew."

"That's what I thought," Envy said.

They seemed pretty smug all things considered, but they had a point. Mei was not letting that happen in the jar and . . . stay there. The jar would be really gross by the time they reached Xing. So she let Envy out by a bush and turned away quickly. She waited for a little, but her patience wasn't great at the moment. There was no reason for it to be.

"You done yet Envy?" Mei asked. It was quiet. "Envy?"

Mei turned. There was a wet patch on the ground, so Envy probably hadn't been completely lying. On the other hand, Envy was nowhere in sight. Mei made a frustrated growl and started searching. For a normal person, it would be futile. Envy was a small green creature in the forest. There was a concept called 'blending in' going on. Normally homunculi gave themselves away with their unnatural presence, but without the Philosopher's Stone even the feeling of too many people in a body wasn't there anymore. That said, Envy wasn't exactly normal either. Mei had trained in alkahestry for as long as she could remember. She could still detect Envy.

She found them about a foot away trying to climb a root.

Mei grabbed them by the tail. "Did you expect that to work?" Mei asked.

"Did you expect me not to try?" Envy asked.

Okay, fair enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Envy might have made a mistake, or two. Said decisions seemed like a good idea at the time, but they were just working against them now. Envy had gotten them kicked out of a train. It could've gotten them away from the princess, but no she just _had_ to escape, and the journey really was longer on foot. They had run when the princess let them out of the jar. It _should_ have gotten them away from her, but she'd somehow found them, and was considerably less likely to let them out of the jar now. They should really do something helpful or she'd just stop listening to them in entirety.

"Hey, there's a shortcut that way," Envy said, pointing with their tail down a clearly less traveled on path.

The one they were on wasn't paved but at least it was a clear path with nothing growing on it.

"I know you're lying Envy," the princess said. The weird creature on her shoulder growled in agreement.

"Why would I?" Envy asked. "You could see any danger on that trail."

The two had left the forest behind. The trail went off through a grass land, and all that was in sight was grass for quite a while. If that changed the princess could absolutely see it change above the grass.

"You don't want to go to Xing," the princess answered. "I'm not falling for you trick."

 _Oh come on! It's not even a trick! This time._

Envy had been in Amestris when these trails were made. They knew how the short cuts worked.

* * *

Envy was almost asleep. They didn't know how the princess was still awake honestly. But Envy was still aware enough to see a trail letting out near them.

"Told you," Envy said.

The princess slowed. "Huh?"

Envy rolled their eyes. It had been a long time since Envy talked about the shortcut, because without the shortcut it took them a long time to get here. But it was also the last thing they'd spoken about. It shouldn't have been so hard to figure out.

"That's the shortcut path. Right there. It would've been shorter. Told you."

"Oh."

The princess was clearly defeated, but Envy had been hoping for more of a reaction.

 _Ah well,_ they thought. _At least I can sleep now._


	5. Chapter 5

Mei had stopped running, mostly because it was raining. The trail had turned to mud. If it didn't let up soon she'd keep going, she'd traveled through worse after all. For the moment though, it just seemed like a waste of energy. So she sat under the overhang of an old abandoned house. Xiao-Mei sat next to her, shivering slightly. Envy's jar sat on a part of the railing still standing. Envy had stopped lying around like road kill and was moving around the jar slightly. That was Mei's hint at what was coming.

"Hey you brat," Envy started. "Why are you taking me back to Xing anyway? I mean, isn't there already someone from Xing looking for immortality?"

Mei clenched her fists angrily. Ling was looking for immortality, but she hopped he wouldn't find it. They were from different clans, and her clan needed this more than his. Seriously. He had body guards, enough for two of them to come with him. But Mei was silent. Who knew what information would be helpful to Envy.

For a short while, it was successful. Envy was silent. That didn't last.

"Why do you spend so much time with Scar?" Envy asked. "I mean, he hates your kind after all. It seems dangerous to be going around with someone like him."

Mei turned towards Envy with obvious confusion. What were they talking about? Scar was a good person. Sure, he'd acted kind of scary before, but only towards the homunculi. Mei remembered at the last second not to ask. She bit her lip and turned away.

"Oh? Have your doubts after all?" Envy asked.

Mei didn't answer. She patted Xiao-Mei a few times. Xiao-Mei barely responded to that or the homunculus' taunts. It seemed like the panda would fall asleep soon.

"Hey, princess, what's your name?" Envy asked.

"What?" Mei asked.

Xiao-Mei did what could pretty accurately be described as a face palm.

"Ignoring me doesn't do much good if you only do it partially," Envy pointed out.

"Don't change the subject!" Mei shouted, jumping up, mostly irritated that they were right. "How do you not know my name?"

"No one really says it, and why should I care enough if they did?"

 _How typical of them,_ Mei thought. "I'm Mei Chang."

She sat back down.

"See, was that so hard?" Envy asked.

Mei didn't answer that. The group sat in silence for a moment longer. It looked like the rain was lightening up. Maybe they'd be able to leave soon. . .

"Hey, brat," Envy started again.

Mei groaned.


	6. Chapter 6

Mei, Xiao-Mei, and Envy all sat in a circle playing Xingese checkers. This was odd for a number of reasons. For one, they didn't have the board. Mei had needed to get creative to play this game. Luckily she was very used to making stars and circles in the dirt, so that was no problem. Another odd thing, Envy had to be outside of their jar to play. Mei knew that was risky, but she also knew they had to come out sometimes. At least this way Mei could watch them, and would notice if they tried to make a break for it.

The third odd thing, was just how bad Xiao-Mei and Envy were at this. Okay, Mei knew Xiao-Mei was bad from the one time they'd played before, and Envy wasn't doing too terribly considering it was their first time, but Mei was still winning with a strategy neither of them had figured out how to defeat. Good thing too, because in all honesty, her plan A was pretty easy to stop.

Mei smiled smugly as Envy hopped over one of their own pieces. That move was alright, but since they could only hop once it was horribly slow.

"Face it Envy, you're no match for me," Mei said.

Envy snarled slightly. "Or so you think. I can win this game easily."

Well yes, Mei had a feeling egging Envy on would just make them more determined to win. Beside them, Xiao-Mei chewed on a rock they were using as a playing piece.

* * *

Envy knew they were in trouble. Mei had gotten almost all of her pieces to the other side of the makeshift board, while most of Envy's were still in the middle. They were trying to come up with something, anything, but it was hard to concentrate with Mei looking so pleased with herself. Envy picked up one of their pieces, looking around nervously. Nope. Nothing. Zero ideas were coming to mind.

With a frustrated groan Envy flung their piece across the board, scattering the other pieces, including Mei's. Well that wasn't completely intentional, but it worked.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Mei shouted.

"Oh? And why should I do things how you tell me to?" Envy asked. They turned away, sticking their head up in the air. "I win this way."

"There's no point in a game if we don't all play by the same rules," Mei said. "And how is that winning? Your pieces are still scattered around the board."

"Oh that's easy brat," Envy answered.

"Did you forget my name again?" Mei asked.

Envy decided to just ignore that and answer her original question. "I got the most to the finish."

(Chinese checkers was the first game I thought of that would give me what I wanted, but China doesn't exist in FMA. I think you can tell how I solved that. Also, this is my last idea so I'm marking it as complete for now. Thanks to everyone for reading.)


End file.
